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    Au Revoir to All That: The Rise and Fall of French Cuisine
    Unavailable
    Au Revoir to All That: The Rise and Fall of French Cuisine
    Unavailable
    Au Revoir to All That: The Rise and Fall of French Cuisine
    Ebook300 pages5 hours

    Au Revoir to All That: The Rise and Fall of French Cuisine

    By Michael Steinberger

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Au Revoir to All That takes us on an entertaining and intriguing journey into France's identity, directly through the tastebuds...

    Offering a fresh and entertaining approach to understanding French history, through its food and wine, Steinberger reveals a radically changing France; a country moving through social and political reform, economic crises and, importantly, the loss of their seemingly unbreakable dominance in all things gastronomical. If the state of France's celebrated cuisine is the bellwether for the state of the nation, things are looking bleak.

    Top chefs are renouncing their Michelin stars and prized farmhouse cheeses are going extinct because there is no one to make them. Bistros, brasseries and cafés fold by the scores and hypermarkets and superstores account for 75% of retail food sales. The famed wine-producing Languedoc is home to the world's first wine-terrorist organization - winemakers resorting to violence to protect their struggling industry.

    But while there may be better baguettes in Tokyo than in Paris, and Spain has become the darling of the gastronomic world, there are glimpses of hope. There are up-and-coming culinary stars and outdoor food festivals, pockets of exuberance amid the gloom. And, as long as a praline millefeuille can be celebrated, savoured and allowed to assume talismanic qualities at a Right Bank tea salon, all is not lost.

    Au Revoir to All That is an essential - almost edible - book for lovers of food, France and culinary history.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury Publishing
    Release dateJun 1, 2009
    ISBN9781408803172
    Unavailable
    Au Revoir to All That: The Rise and Fall of French Cuisine
    Author

    Michael Steinberger

    Michael Steinberger is Slate's longtime wine columnist and a contributing writer for the Financial Times. His work has also appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times magazine, NYT Book Review, the Economist, Food & Wine, and Saveur, among many other publications. Previously, he worked as a foreign correspondent in Hong Kong, covering the city's transition to Chinese rule, and he has written extensively about economics, finance, culture, sports, and politics for a variety of leading international media. He is married with two children.

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    Reviews for Au Revoir to All That

    3.5/5

    62 ratings17 reviews

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    • 3/5
      The author is a journalist who has a big interest in French haut cuisine. He records the downfall of French gastronomy over the past 30 years and explores some of the causes.

      I liked how he placed French cooking in historical context. It made the tale of how the situation changed in France clearer. The tale is a cautionary one: many of the troubles of French gastronomy are caused by the socialist economic and political philosophy. Value Added Tax for French restaurant bills is 19.6% compared to the VAT for a MacDonald's meal: 5.5.%. Then there are the very onerous labor laws that discouraged restaurants (never mind other employers) to hire employees, despite high unemployment. It is discouraging and frightening to watch the US travel down this same path...
    • 3/5
      Many have bemoaned the end of French classical cooking, but Michael Steinberger writes dispassionately & accurately about why the way the French eats is changing - mostly because of economics and the age old "the times they are a'changing."Anyone who loves France and/or French food will enjoy this book
    • 4/5
      Fascinating discussion of the decline in the average quality of French food, and of the factors that explain it. I was saddened to read it: it confirmed my own experience, but I had hoped that my dissapointments on my past few trips to France were just bad luck. No, but there is hope.
    • 4/5
      I think this is an interesting book.The author assumes some familiarity in the reader for French recipes, culinary history, and chefs. The episodes in the book each focus on one aspect of the "apparent" decline in current French cuisine. One discusses artisanal cheese, another covers the influence of McDonald's, and a third the fate of small vineyards in Bordeaux.The thesis of the book -- that French food is somehow crashing -- is covered well. There are actual data like quotes and recent statistics used, but the tone is more conversational than scholarly.I would recommend it to someone who enjoyed Michael Ruhlman's books.
    • 3/5
      An interesting look at how we define culture and how culture evolves through a look at the evolution of French cuisine. The author clearly loves France and the French, and the book is far more positive than reviewers had led me to believe.
    • 5/5
      I was greatly disturbed, as many reviewers were, by the vast number of typographical errors in the review copy of this book which I received. I feared the worst when I discovered the book was on retail shelves before I had even received my review copy, but I may happily report that the typos appear to be largely, perhaps entirely, corrected. I say this based on my comparison of the issued book with approximately thirty typos in my review copy (including many of those maddening missing dates and numbers). Substantively, "Au Revoir To All That" is a fascinating anecdotal history and memoir from the kitchen trenches of France, so to speak, and plainly suggests that all is not going well in La Belle France, at least gastronomically, and probably in most other areas of life too. The rays of hope pertain mostly to the rise of gastronomic standards in other countries, and the possibility that French cuisine, and its ingredients, may live on today, and live better, in foreign climes. Steinberger's elegaic tone suggests his opinions on the matter, but the chapters provide more fascinating and suggestive information than a rhetorical contribution to the French "declinologue" oeuvre he mentions. Steinberger's book is a rollicking good read, and as food for thought, it is a colorful and saucy dish.
    • 3/5
      I thought this book was about the end of great food and food culture in France, but it turned out to be a collection of essays on the current state of various aspects of food in France, with little analysis of whether the situation is worsening or not. Each chapter is interesting as a stand-alone essay, but I thought the chapters did not come together in a coherent whole. I also thought that the attempts at economic analysis were both overly simplistic and boring. Steinberger never really connects the recent economic problems in France with a true decline in the food culture in more than an anecdotal way, and the book would be better without the economic data and scattered political commentary. Along the same lines, I thought Steinberger was trying to fit the facts to his thesis, but, at the same time, waffling on whether the food situation was actually worse. For example, the chapter on wine talks about the large number of small vintners who are going out of business--bad. But then Steinberger points out that many of the vintners weren't producing great wines and were supported by government subsidies and poorly-reasoned bank loans. So, is France losing any good wine? The discussion of the Michelin guide is similarly inconclusive.Steinberger has a nice writing style and has interesting stories to tell. He should have stuck with that instead of trying to engage in some kind of sociological or economic analysis.
    • 4/5
      As a Francophile I follow various aspects of French culture, including the history, language, literature, and current events. The author has eruditely exposed another fascinating slice of the French culture.. the cuisine and culinary heritage. Kudos!
    • 4/5
      An engaging and informative book. I enjoyed the overall premise as well as the individual focus of each chapter on various aspects of French food and wine. While not strictly related to one another, the chapters came together to form a cohesive whole. They reminded me articles one might read in The New Yorker--a very good thing in my opinion. I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in food, wine, and/or French culture.
    • 1/5
      Being a Francophile, I had high hopes for this book. Unfortunately, "Au Revoir" needs a good going-over by an editor (and a fact-checker, and a typesetter) before it's ready for prime time. There are problems of both conception and execution, with Steinberger hopping from one topic to another without developing any of them fully. It would've been better to take one of the chapters and expand it into a book, rather than tackling such a huge subject in such a haphazard fashion. And while I tried to skip over the typesetting errors, there are too many to ignore, and the occasional sentences of word salad look like they were typed by a cat.
    • 4/5
      Remember back a few years ago when Americans all hated France? What was that about? We renamed french fries freedom fries and we wouldn't drink french wines. I think it had something to do with the French government's stance on the Iraq war. The French are just a little too superior to Americans, and we don't like that so we won't drink your wine. So there.Michael Steinberger is an American who loves France. More importantly he loves eating and French food and wine and has written a lovely memoir--almost an elegy--about the decline of French gastronomy. Fine french wines and restaurants and cheeses are all in various states of decline and ruin, and are being eclipsed by the English, the Americans and *gasp* Spain.I say it is lovely because I approached this book feeling like it was something I needed to get through, but I came away very taken with the beauty of these timeless french industries and the history and culture behind them. The author really led me in to the French restaurant industry -- the three start restaurants and how they were earned and what they said about a man (no women here) and his love for fine cooking. The book tries to explain what has happened to French restaurants and does so with loving care. While I lost interest during the long parade of french chef's and how they were inter connected, I loved the chapter called "The Last Gentleman of Europe" where Steinberger profiles the last of the big three star Parisian Restaurants to loose its star. This chapter alone is worth the price of the book. I also loved the chapter about McDonald's role in France. Contrary to popular belief, the french love their McDo. Steinberger points his finger at France itself for the demise of some of its most cherished industries (not at crass Americans!) He discusses French policy and politics towards industry and regulations, and calls to France for some basic reforms to save its own products and culture. One chapter is all about the Michelin guide and how it serves to encourage tourism, but is also filled with hypocrisy. After all, Michelin really just wants to sell tires.I was surprised that I enjoyed this book as much as I did. The real story here is not that long parade of French chef's who cook and influence French culture, but the farmers and cheese makers and restauranteurs who are trying valiantly to remain French and carry on their long standing traditions. Each chapter surprised me a lot and taught me something new about France. Although this may not be your best summer beach read, it is a great story about France and its people. It will make you feel a little bad about all that French wine you do not drink.
    • 5/5
      Au Revoir To All That, Michael Steinberger's new book, is an attempt to explain the decline in quality and preeminence of French cuisine. The varied factors Steinberger provide include the unhealthy influence of the Michelin guide, the flourishing of fast food throughout France, the French economy, crises affecting French wine and cheese makers, and the popularity of chefs who spend more time marketing themselves than cooking in the kitchen. Taken as a whole, Steinberger weaves these disparate threads into a persuasive argument, but the book feels a little fractured. Still, the book is a pleasure to read, and this foodie couldn't put it down without reading several chapters at a time. It's an illuminating, if sobering, look at a severe problem facing the culinary community. Highly recommended for lovers of food or France.
    • 4/5
      Whether you're a gourmand, a gourmet or just a lover of fine food -- or France -- this informative guide to the highs and lows of French food is a must for your kitchen bookshelf. It's easy to read -- if somewhat opinionated -- and covers such topics as the Michelin Guide, the history of French cooking, various French and other international chefs and what to expect from a three-star restaurant.
    • 4/5
      For years, wine writer and ardent Francophile Michael Steinberger ignored the doomsayers trying to hang crepe on France’s gastronomic culture. He dismissed out of hand a 1997 New Yorker article with the interrogatory headline, “Is There a Crisis in French Cooking?” He refused to consider the emergence of super star Spanish chefs and their la Nueva Cucina as a real threat to France’s dominance in the kitchen. And he discounted his own sub-par dining experiences as well as the accelerating death rate of France’s restaurants, closing by the hundreds each year.But, eventually, the totality of the evidence overwhelmed his denial. The “snails fell from [his] eyes,” he explains, after a particularly bad lunch at his favorite Parisian restaurant. His “adored institution” had changed, replacing its classic dishes with a dumbed-down menu and the equally classic waitresses with “bumbling androids.” The experience forced him to consider the unthinkable idea that French cuisine might really be in trouble. He decided to find out for himself.In Au Revoir to All That: Food, Wine, and the End of France, Steinberger opens the cupboards of France’s culinary heritage and makes a compelling case for how and why the situation looks so bleak. Steinberger did his research. He interviewed star chefs, rising stars, falling stars, restaurateurs, wine makers, wine merchants, cheese makers, and PR flaks. He visited restaurants, wineries, and farms; eating, drinking, and listening his way through the French culinary scene. He amassed a staggering mountain of statistics. And then he turned these raw ingredients into captivating vignettes that tell a story so much bigger than the sum of all these parts. His conclusions are based on first-hand observations and discussions with the people trying cook and run culinary businesses in France. He does not shy away from bigger issues of politics and social mores. His clear-eyed approach allows him to provide a comprehensive picture of his subject matter.With luck, and hard work, maybe France can reinvigorate its culinary reputation and Steinberger will write another terrific book about the comeback.Read a longer review of this book on Rose City Reader.
    • 4/5
      `Au Revoir To All That` is a quick engrossing and often funny account of recent French food and cultural history. It's the perfect book if you know a little about French food history from news events but want to learn. Such as the famous blind wine taste test in the 1980s when American wines beat French for the first time; the incident when a McDonald's was bulldozed by angry French farmers; or the relation of McDonald's to French culture in general; raw-milk cheese and the French - it's not what you imagine; etc.. Steinberg is on the ground giving interviews with famous French chefs and at the tables of 3-star restaurants trying the food (*sigh* someone has to do it) - an accomplished and skilled writer this is one of the more enjoyable books I've read in a while. A perfect balance of length and surprising new perspectives contrary to popular belief, Steinberg opens the doors to French culture and gastronomy.
    • 4/5
      Michael Steinberger thinks French cuisine has gone seriously downhill in France, and that some of the most famous restaurants among gourmets and gourmands are no longer worth the mid-three figure bill that arrives at the end of a meal for two. His evidence seems compelling: chefs have become celebrities, and no longer spend much time in their kitchens, so that, for instance, Paul Bocuse’s filets de sole aux nouilles Fernand Point has become “a piece of tasteless fish submerged in a cream sauce thicker than plaster of Paris and flanked by a small pile of gummy noodles.” What a critique! Some restaurants remain wonderful – Taillevent, in Paris, continues to thrill even if it has inexplicably lost one of its prized Michelin stars. But raw milk cheeses are disappearing, fast food is becoming the norm, and chefs concentrate on building restaurant empires around the world instead of sending perfect plates out of their kitchens. Steinberger has written an elegy that you can smell and taste if you concentrate hard enough – and makes you wonder if that longed-for trip to Paris is really worth the price of the airline ticket any more.
    • 4/5
      Au Revoir to All That is a wide-ranging book on the rise and fall of French cuisine. I found the title, which I can only assume is a reference to the Robert Graves World War I autobiography a little stretched. I wouldn’t liken the decline in French cuisine to the loss of innocence in a war but getting over that I was prepared to see what longtime critic Steinberger had to offer.While it is clear that Steinberger has a deep love of French cuisine and wine, I confess the first part had me thinking of the film Ratatouille particularly because of his descriptions of Bocuse and other French chefs who capitalized on their fame to build food empires rather than continue to work in their kitchens. For lovers of French culinary history I suspect the name-dropping of various chefs will make it read like a roman a clef for those who are less familiar with the French food scene I suspect it may be a bit tedious to follow.Most problematic is that the book feels like a series of articles that have been put together to make a book so that certain information is repeated in multiple chapters and other times there are gaps in information between chapters where I would love to see some expansion. I also wish he spent more time on chefs who are carrying on the French tradition rather than just bemoan the loss of food many of us will never get to taste.Steinberger is at his most interesting when he discusses the rise of McDonald’s in France, now the second largest consumer market after the United States, and the politics of the value added tax, real milk cheeses and wine displays. I found those sections well researched and fascinating. For the Francophile and gourmand this book is likely a must read for the casual reader it may not consistently hold interest but the chapter on “McDo” in France would interest anyone.